PSV is the Dutch football champion for the 25th time. That in itself is a milestone, but this national title also marks a historic turnaround in national football statistics.
PSV as national champions of 1975. Photo Bert Verhoeff through the National Archives
In the last fifty seasons, PSV won 21 national titles and Ajax 20. In the other nine seasons, the national championship fell to Feyenoord (5x), AZ (2x) and FC Twente (1x) or the competition was not completed (1x, due to corona ). This is a statistical revolution that is certainly worth mentioning, although Ajax of course remains the club with the most national titles (36).
Advancement of PSV
The rise of PSV as a national top club took shape fifty years ago when it won the KNVB Cup on May 1, 1974. On that evening, defending champion (!) NAC was defeated 6-0 in the final in De Kuip, after PSV had won the had already defeated Feyenoord and Ajax in previous rounds.
It was a disguised breakthrough for the club, which at that time had been dry for more than ten years after winning the national title in 1963. The so-called friend team of coach Kees Rijvers would become national champion a year later. That was the fifth national title in club history. So twenty more would follow. Since 1975, PSV has played a leading role in the Premier League and this has now led to a leading position in the rankings of champions over fifty seasons.
1924 – 1974
In the previous half century between 1924 and 1974, twenty different clubs became national champions, but Ajax was already the most successful with fourteen national titles. Feyenoord became champion ten times in that period. PSV was the third club in the country with four titles. Go Ahead (yet without Eagles), Heracles, ADO and Willem II each won the national crown twice.
When comparing the situations surrounding the distribution of national titles over half a century with a ten-year jump, it is striking that the number of clubs that became champions decreased rapidly after the introduction of professional football in the Netherlands. The share of the top clubs werd logically increasing. But the latest measurement shows a turnaround and therefore a change at the top, as shown in the following overview:
1924-1974: 28 (Ajax 14, Feyenoord 10, PSV 4; 20 clubs)
1934-1984: 32 (Ajax 16, Feyenoord 10, PSV 6; 15 clubs)
1944-1994: 36 (Ajax 17, PSV 11, Feyenoord 8; 12 clubs)
1954-2004: 44 (Ajax 21, PSV 14, Feyenoord 9; 7 clubs)
1964-2014: 47 (Ajax 23, PSV 17, Feyenoord 7; 5 clubs)
1974-2024: 46 (PSV 21, Ajax 20, Feyenoord 5; 5 clubs)
PSV as national champions in 1951. Photo Harry Pot through the National Archives
Neck and neck race
If we divide the last half century into five units of ten years, it is also striking that there was a neck-and-neck race between PSV and Ajax, with PSV being narrowly better thanks to the fact that it captured six of the ten titles. between 1984 and 1994 (equalling Ajax’s record between 1964 and 1974). Both clubs were the best in two decades and in one decade (2004-2014) they won the same number of national titles, both becoming champions four times in a row. PSV won three national titles by beating Ajax on the last match day (1991, 2007 and 2016). It is details like these that have made the statistical change at the top possible.
PSV owes this leading position to a few eras, starting with that of Rijvers (with three national titles) but especially in the late eighties with Guus Hiddink at the helm and in the first decade of this century, when PSV twice trailed four times. each other became champions. Of course there are waves and Ajax can regain this leading position for the most national titles in half a century, with a championship in the coming season.
It is certainly equally striking that Ajax and Feyenoord together have only won half the number of national titles in the last half century. Instinctively, most football fans in the Netherlands would think that this percentage would be around 60%. The supremacy of these two clubs lay between 1964 and 1974, when all national titles were divided among themselves (Ajax 6 and Feyenoord 4). But that ‘dictatorship’ is a thing of the past for these statistics
